r. It isn't so
very dirty in there. Most of this I got on myself scraping down the burnt
vines. Here comes the captain. He doesn't generally oversleep himself
like this. If he will go with me, we will explore that crack."

When Captain Horn heard of the passage into the rock, he was much more
interested than Ralph had expected him to be, and, without loss of time,
he lighted a lantern and, with the boy behind him, set out to investigate
it. But before entering the cleft, the captain stationed Maka at a place
where he could view all the approaches to the plateau, and told him if he
saw any snakes or other dangerous things approaching, to run to the
opening and call him. Now, snakes were among the few things that Maka was
not afraid of, and so long as he thought these were the enemies to be
watched, he would make a most efficient sentinel.

When Captain Horn had cautiously advanced a couple of yards into the
interior of the rock, he stopped, raised his lantern, and looked about
him. The passage was about two feet wide, the floor somewhat lower than
the ground outside, and the roof but a few feet above his head. It was
plainly the work of man, and not a natural crevice in the rocks. Then
the captain put the lantern behind him, and stared into the gloom ahead
of them. As Ralph had said, it was not so dark as might have been
expected. In fact, about twenty feet forward there was a dim light on the
right-hand wall.

The captain, still followed by Ralph, now moved on until they came to
this lighted place, and found it was an open doorway. Both heads
together, they peeped in, and saw it was an opening like a doorway into a
chamber about fifteen feet square and with very high walls. They scarcely
needed the lantern to examine it, for a jagged opening in the roof let in
a good deal of light.

Passing into this chamber, keeping a good watch out for pitfalls as he
moved on, and forgetting, in his excitement, that he might go so far that
he could not hear Maka, should he call, the captain saw to the right
another open doorway, on the other side of which was another chamber,
about the size of the one they had first entered. One side of this was a
good deal broken away, and through a fracture three or four feet wide the
light entered freely, as if from the open air. But when the two explorers
peered through the ragged aperture, they did not look into the open air,
but into another chamber, very much larger than the others, with hig